Bourdais Battles to Eight Place Finish at Texas

Sebastien Bourdais Race Summary:Sebastien Bourdais battled his way to an eighth place finish in the DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, TX. The 39-year-old resident of St. Petersburg, FL qualified the No. 18 Team SealMaster – Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan entry a career best fifth at TMS. The race began at 7:45 p.m., however despite the night time start, it was extremely hot with an ambient temperature of 94 degrees and a track temp high of 132. This made for a challenging race as downforce and therefore grip were way down, and tire degradation was way up due to the cars constantly sliding on the track. This caused both the right front and rear tires to blister. Bourdais dropped to ninth early in the race and pitted for the first time on lap 52, earlier than the leaders. By the time he stopped for the third time on lap 166, he had fought back to fourth. He rejoined the race in 12th place two laps down as a result of pitting under the green. Had the race stayed green through the round of pit stops, Bourdais would have cycled back to the front on the lead lap. Unfortunately, a yellow came out six laps later allowing the leaders to pit, keeping Bourdais down two laps. A combination of strategy moves, avoiding crashes and great driving by Bourdais got him back on the lead lap, however he just ran out of time.

Sebastien Bourdais Race Quote:

“Obviously it was a disappointing result for a pretty solid race. The SealMaster Honda No. 18 was as good as anything else out there. I just didn’t gage the tire degradation well enough on the first stint. We ended up pitting early and that settle the issue because there wasn’t a yellow until much later in the race. When one did finally came out it went against us because we had just come in the pits. The guys did a great job, the car was competitive, it was fast, like it was all weekend. In the end we just took what we could. It’s a real shame. The car and the team deserved better than eighth.”

Of Bourdais’ 37 career oval starts, 29 have come in the last six years (28 in last five years).

Bourdais has made 30 IndyCar oval starts (includes 2005 Indy 500) with a best qualifying effort of first (pole) at Phoenix in 2018. Phoenix was his first pole since Mid-Ohio in 2014 and first on an oval since 2006 at Milwaukee. His best finish on an oval is a victory at Milwaukee in 2015, his first on an oval since 2006 also at Milwaukee.

Bourdais is the only driver to win four consecutive IndyCar championships (2004 – 2007).

Next Race and Broadcast Times:Round 10 of the 2018 Verizon IndyCar Series will be the Kohler Grand Prix, June 24 on the Road America permanent road course in Elkhart Lake, WI. The race will be broadcast live on NBCSN at 12:30 p.m. ET. It is also available on radio: XM 209 and IMS IndyCar Radio as well as online: IndyCar.com and Verizon IndyCar 18 app.